Black Hair Blue Eyes
by Cherry Punch
Summary: Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she grew up she parents kissed a lot and laughed a lot and loved each other a lot. She wrote 'Percy and Thalia' and encircled it in a heart. She thought they were forever. What happened?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO**

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><p>Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she grew up her parents kissed a lot and laughed a lot and loved each other a lot. A lot of the time they were happy which made Andy happy. She talked to her parents all the time, silly little child's secrets that they weren't supposed to tell anyone. They told her stories and she told them a few made up fables that went on and on until they reached their happily ever after. When she was six she heard 'opposites attract' for the first time. It worried her because everyone said her parents were exactly alike. She could never see it. Andy wrote in the corner of a journal 'opposites attract but mommy and daddy are forever'. It took her a while to get it right because her parents said her mind was wired differently so letters and numbers didn't look like they should. That was okay with her. She had memorized the alphabet, a to z and she was so happy that her parents were proud even if she couldn't write it down all of the time. Under her note she scribbled 'Percy and Thalia' and encircled it in a heart.<p>

Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she was thirteen, her parents never kissed or laughed or loved each other. They screamed a lot and fought a lot and ignored Andy a lot. She sat in her room trying to remember the last time she had said two words to either of them. All her stories came from her laptop or one of her old books sitting unread in the corner on a rickety green shelf. Her own stories were scratched into an old journal. She scribbled in the seventh edition of her life. Most of the pages were filled with poems and the ones that weren't were filled with questions and drawings. Her hands were ink stained and doodled on. P!nk was Andy's favorite artist and a playlist of her songs filled the room. Under her bed, edition one of Andy's life had a long forgotten promise of 'opposites attract but mommy and daddy are forever'. She could write the alphabet now with no problem and her parents didn't care. They expected it. That's why, in edition seven, the only note was 'screw it'.

Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she was fourteen not a word was spoken in her house. Things were shouted if they needed to be said at all. So Andy shoved her journal, a few extra pens and her toothbrush into her backpack and crawled out her window onto the roof. She jumped down and walked seven miles in the dark to the di Angelo residence. P!nk played too loudly in her ears but reality was just a little louder so she turned it up. She got to the gray house, one her best friend Caroline was so proud to say her mother designed, and knocked on the door. Even at nine thirty-eight at night, Mrs. di Angelo invited Andy in with a smile. She didn't ask questions. She just called out "Andy's here!" and offered her a drink. Andy said "No thank you" and said a quiet greeting to Mr. di Angelo who responded kindly. No questions. Caroline and Justin were down the stairs in a second, laughing and telling jokes and wrestling until Andy joined in. Justin was older and pinned them both down within a few minutes. They all went to the living room and watched a movie until everyone but Annabeth had fallen asleep on the couch. She called Thalia, told her Andy was alright and that she would drop her off in the morning.

Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she was fifteen she called Annabeth di Angelo her mom and Nico di Angelo her dad. Thalia was Thalia and Percy was Percy if she ever talked to them at all. Her clothes were almost all gray as was the guest room of the di Angelo house. Her eyes were consistently outlined with black and her lips always had a hint of red to them. On a good day she smiled a few times and on a bad day people didn't notice because she looked that way all the time. She went to school with Caroline, had all the same classes as Caroline and couldn't be more different from Caroline. Caroline smiled and laughed and joked. Caroline had a decent family. Caroline's parents didn't scream until they lost their voices for a week. Annabeth and Nico said things like 'I love you' and 'How was your day?'

Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she was sixteen she learned which blade cut the cleanest and which bathroom in both houses went the least unused. She learned she looked good in black and wore it all the time so maybe she would blend with the shadows and no one would notice the scars. She sat in the backseat of Justin's car pulling her sleeves down over her palms and waiting anxiously for the tattoo and piercing parlor to come over the horizon. Inside Justin was nineteen and Caroline and Andy were blood sisters who got little black hearts etched into their right ankles while Annabeth and Nico were at work. And on her back left shoulder Andy got a lightning bolt and trident crossed over each other. The guys asked her what it meant. She said 'Screw it'. That day she also got a stud in her lower lip, her nose, a piercing in her upper ear and one more on her ear lobe to add to the two that had been there for years. That night she went to a Christmas party at the di Angelo's where her parents weren't talking to each other and Andy spent most of her time avoiding them. Her dad found her and asked heartbroken what she did to herself. She said 'Screw it' and ran up to her room where she got three more cuts.

Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. When she was seventeen she had platinum blonde hair. She went back to her house to get the rest of her stuff from her room while her mother yelled and pleaded for her to stay. Andy slammed the door and went on to gather editions one through eight of her life from under her bed and on her rickety green book shelf. She sat on her squeaky old bed and flipped backwards through them. Old doodles and secrets flooded her mind. Lyrics to P!nk songs she had memorized and poems that could've been lyrics to send to her idle. In the seventh she read 'screw it'. In the first she read 'opposites attract, but mommy and daddy are forever' and 'Percy and Thalia' written in a heart. She stared at it for a long while. Andy picked up her favorite Skull Candy headphones and covered her ears. P!nk told her about being fucking perfect and throwing glitter in the air. P!nk told her don't let me get me and who knew. It was P!nk who sang about a family portrait where everyone looked happy and maybe just thinking about the possibility of pretending that was true. By the second chorus tears were streaming down Andy's face with the ferocity of the Rio Grande. She put her back against the wall, pulled her legs up the chest and pushed the heels of her hands under her eyes which were shut tight. She was choking on reality and sadness that were closing her throat so tight she could barely breathe. Percy and Thalia stopped fighting for long enough to hear broken sobs. They ran upstairs and pushed open the door to see Andromeda Talia Jackson, waist length blonde hair and blue eyes lined in so much black and pain they weren't recognizable. She got up and threw her arms around her surprises parents, just needing to be held one last time before she left her broken family in the dust. But when they hugged her back and her mother sobbed back into her shoulder while her face was buried in her father's shoulder she didn't want it to change. She wanted so badly to be able to love her parents and have them love her back. And they wanted her to know they did love her and that she was what kept them together. Part of her knew that but she was so scared to admit she had kept two people who were never meant to be together in a hateful relationship for years. So none of them said anything. They hugged for a little longer until Andy pulled back and grabbed her backpack. She wiped the mascara and eyeliner away from her cheeks and walked out the door.

Andromeda Talia Jackson was born with black hair and blue eyes. Her parents didn't love each other. They didn't kiss or laugh or even pretend to care about the other. She found herself twenty miles from her house, bleeding from the wrists one last time with her feet buried in the sand and the tide rising. She lay on her back, facing the sky while her grandfather's domain glowed pink in the setting sun's light. Maybe tomorrow she would get up and go to California. Maybe tomorrow she would get up and walk down to where her grandfather would happily let her stay. Maybe tomorrow she would get up and go up to Olympus where her grandfather would let her stay.

Maybe tomorrow her parents would see how much she really gave a damn.

Maybe there wouldn't be a tomorrow.

Maybe she was right about both.

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><p><strong>AN: I just thought about this one-shot and, I know, it's kind of depressing but it's also sort of annoying when people assume these families would be perfect. Tell me what you think and maybe I'll write another about a different pairing, I don't know. Hope you enjoyed it. **

**~ZTH**


	2. Please Read: Suicide

**Hey guys. This isn't another chapter, but please read anyway. I want to tell you guys about suicide. In my middle school, there was a kid only a year younger than me. He moved out to Texas this year, his eighth grade year. His name was Robert and yesterday he killed himself. I don't go to his school anymore but it was a horrible, tragic thing for people who didn't even know him. He was thirteen. He had a little brother and a little sister. He had his parents. He accidentally overdosed on pills while trying to take just enough to keep him home from school today. **

**In this story, I left it up in the air about whether or not Andy killed herself. I posted this story the same day and today I found out about Robert. I'm still shaking. **

**There are ideas about why he did it, but bottom line is he will never go to school again. He'll never get married. He'll never have kids. He'll never even finish middle school. **

**So please, please I'm begging you. If you are thinking about the smallest possibility of killing yourself get it out of your head right now. My entire town is devastated by this. Trust me when I say people **_**do care**_** about you. Tell someone what's wrong. Talk to someone. If you need to talk to me. PM me and I'll gladly talk to you as much as you need about whatever. If you know you're friend or someone you know is thinking about killing themselves TELL SOMEONE. I can't even tell you how important that is. Don't just say "They don't mean it" because if there is even a slim possibility they did it's too late by the time you find out. **

**Do not throw your life away over a problem that can be fixed or will go away. Don't joke about it. Don't say it just to say it. Talk to me if you don't think there's anyone else. I will be more than happy to just listen if that's all you need. **

**Thank you.**

**Rest in peace, Robert. You're missed so, so much.**

**~ZTH**


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